San Jose Sharks at Dallas Stars

Dallas beat San Jose, 4-3, the first time these teams met this season and has won five of the last six in this series dating back to March 2017. The Stars are outscoring the Sharks, 23-11, in those six games -- this is the Sharks' worst goal differential versus any team over this span.

The Stars are on a three-game winning streak and have had three days of rest coming into tonight's game. The team has gone 4-0-0 and outscored opponents 13-5 on three days' rest this season.

The Sharks are coming off two wins over the Canadiens and Hurricanes in which they outscored those teams by a combined 8-2 but were outshot by their opponents 81-52 over the two games.

Timo Meier had three points in his last game (1g, 2a), giving him 26 points on the season in 26 games (1.00 per game). Last season, he had 0.44 points per game. That points-per-game improvement (+0.56) is the fifth-largest in the NHL this season (played in 50% of games each season).

Jamie Benn scored his sixth power-play goal of the season in his last game - he has 12 total goals this season (50.0 percent have been on power plays). Last season, only 25.0 percent of his goals came on the power play (9-of-36).

Brent Burns is the only defensemen in the NHL leading his team in points (29). Burns had a +2 plus/minus in the Sharks' last game -- it was his first time this season finishing a game with a positive plus/minus when he does not score a point.

DALLAS -- Even though the San Jose Sharks and Dallas Stars haven't been Pacific Division bunkmates since the 2012-2013 season, their rivalry, which will be renewed Friday at American Airlines Center, remains a healthy one.

This time around, the Stars are coming off a 4-1 win at home against Edmonton and former Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock on Monday and are 9-3-2 on home ice.

"We're going to have a good effort tomorrow night (Friday) just because we're rested up," Stars first-year coach Jim Montgomery said after practice Thursday. "You could tell in practice today (Thursday) that we had a lot of jump."

Dallas, which has won three straight games, also figures to get a nice boost from the season debut of veteran forward Martin Hanzal, who has been sidelined since March after having spinal fusion surgery.

"I expect him to help us right away," Montgomery said of Hanzal. "Do I expect him to be crisp and sharp? No, he's got to get into it. The more he gets into a rhythm here, the better we're going to be as a hockey team."

The Stars have had the rare benefit of several good practice days since their last game at the beginning of the week.

And Montgomery was pleased with what he saw from his team in practice on Thursday morning.

"Today (Thursday), we were working on some puck possession and timing and spacing, offensive zone and neutral zone," Montgomery said. "That was the focus."

Ben Bishop will start in goal for Dallas.

San Jose (14-10-5, 33 points) defeated Carolina 5-1 on Wednesday at SAP Center, a nice bounce-back performance after the Sharks went 1-4-0 on a five-game road trip and were outscored 21-9.

"Yeah, it was a good game," San Jose coach Peter DeBoer said postgame. "I was a little worried about our energy the first game back, but we got off to a quick start, got that first goal, which was huge. We had some bounces tonight, which we haven't gotten a lot of lately and (Martin Jones) was great (in goal). It wasn't a textbook game, but there was a lot of good stuff."

The Sharks, who have now won two straight and are 5-7-3 on the road, were buoyed by the return of forward Timo Meier, out the previous three games with an upper-body injury.

Meier had a goal and two assists in the victory.

"Yeah, it felt great (to be back)," Meier said. "It was important to get healthy. I was obviously real excited to be playing again. I had a lot of energy today (Wednesday) and think we played a great game overall."